A batting promotion worked wonders for Moeen Ali as he scored his second Test century, and the fourth-highest score by an England No. 7, to build an imposing total of 498 for 9 before Alastair Cook declared before tea on the second day at Chester-le-Street. James Anderson then made an early breakthrough to leave Sri Lanka 32 for 1 and with a huge task ahead to salvage something from the match.
Moeen, whose previous century came in his second Test, against Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014, dominated the scoring although he received good support from the lower order, adding 92 for the seventh wicket with Chris Woakes and 98 for the last two wickets combined. He reached three figures from 109 balls with a lofted drive down the ground (a similar stroke had brought him his half-century). His next fifty took just another 43 deliveries, as he cut loose with Steven Finn and Anderson for company, with the 150 being raised with a crunching six over deep midwicket off Suranga Lakmal.
After Cook called an end to the batting merriment 40 minutes before tea, Anderson then removed Dimuth Karunaratne in the third over of Sri Lanka’s reply when the left-hander moved too far across his stumps. For a moment he stood perplexed leading to the unusual sight of the umpire raising his finger to confirmed a bowled dismissal.
England resumed in 310 for 6, talking positively of 450 but probably willing to accept 400 – in the end they plundered 188 runs in 42 over, of which Moeen provided 127. Although he made a half-century two Tests ago, against South Africa at Centurion, it has been a largely lean time with the bat for Moeen since last year’s Ashes series where his brisk lower-order contributions were vital at Cardiff and Edgbaston.
He has not made any secret that he would prefer to bat higher in the order and in the absence of Ben Stokes he has, temporarily at least, moved up a spot to No. 7. While not a chanceless innings, he appeared more focused than when he is lumped down with the bowlers. The innings needed some direction when he arrived at 227 for 5 and he was largely responsible for the 271 runs that followed.
At times near the end of the innings there was some curious cricket with Moeen declining singles towards the end of overs, while Angelo Mathews seemed happy to allow him to keep the strike if he wanted – almost as though he was content for England to just keep batting once the total had ballooned from a more even overnight position. But Moeen did not lack for boundaries, striking 17 fours and two sixes.
Sri Lanka, though, only had themselves to blame as their fielding descended from the heights of the opening-day masterclass to a shemozzle of dropped catches and misfields. Three chances went down, the most costly being the one Moeen offered on 36 to gully in the third over of the morning and was shelled by Karunaratne. He was later dropped again, on 105, when Milinda Siriwardana made a meal of an attempt at deep square-leg.
In terms of simplicity, however, nothing could surpass the drop by Dinesh Chandimal when Woakes, on 8, edged Shaminda Eranga and the wicketkeeper did not lay a hand on the most regulation of chances. Chandimal was clearly struggling with the thumb injury he picked up on the first evening and after the morning drinks break, Kusal Mendis took over the keeping duties. Graham Ford had admitted on Friday night that Chandimal’s injury was a concern and it was a costly oversight by the Sri Lankans not to remove him from the firing line first thing considering there was a perfectly viable replacement for him.
After his early life, Woakes had looked at ease in the middle – he said in an interview before play that this season is as confident as he has ever felt with the bat – but he fell driving at Lakmal to give Mendis his first catch with the gloves on. Mendis soon took another to end Stuart Broad’s brief stay and earn Nuwan Pradeep a fourth wicket.
The only high point of the first two sessions for Sri Lanka was Rangana Herath’s 300th Test which finally came his way in his 28th over when Finn top-edged a slog sweep – Herath was not going to leave the catching to any of his team-mates. He became the third Sri Lankan bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan (light years ahead on 800 wickets) and Chaminda Vass (355) to cross the milestone. He was warmly applauded by the crowd and he raised the ball in acknowledgement, although a touch of reality soon dawned when No. 11 Anderson reverse swept him for four.
